Unhappenstance
by Sunpies
Summary: Some things are destiny, some are chance. The rest are all just unhappenstance. Neji/Saku drabbles
1. Unstill Life

_#3: Photograph  
-Sunpies-_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, et, al. _

_/Smile/_

When Kakashi-sensei finally (it's been two months!) gets the team picture developed, she realizes that her eyes are closed and her hair is doing that weird thing on the one side. But that's okay because number one, she's a kunoichi now and, number two, she's got a picture of Sasuke. 

It's a bummer she has to share him with Naruto (who smells gross), but she can overlook that because this picture symbolizes that they'll be a team forever.

She thinks that this is probably the best picture in the entire world and puts it in the green and white picture frame Ino gave her as an Ochugen gift before they had to be rivals.

_/Smile/_

_  
_"All right, good!" Tazuna's camera is old but he assures them that he can still develop the picture ("Even if I have to do it myself, dammit!"). The picture is taken right as Kakashi-sensei is leading them towards the bridge out of Wave Country so that they can start the journey home.

When she gets the picture back (she's the second one to get it; after Kakashi), she's ecstatic. It's a really good picture of the three of them. She's tucked up against Sasuke who doesn't look nearly as irritated as he normally does. This time though, it's Naruto who's hogging the spotlight. He's jumping out in front of their team, grinning like a madman and blocking out Kakashi-sensei (though she wonders if Kakashi-sensei did that on purpose).

It's a great memory of an important mission and it's harder to give it to Naruto ("you have to give it to Sasuke right away! Don't Lose It!") than she thought it would be.

The picture moves full circle through their team before it comes back to her a few months later. By then it's got a folded edge and someone -Naruto- has spilled something sticky on it so that "The Great Naruto Bridge" and all of the surrounding scenery is blended together in a smudge of red, gray, and blue.

She keeps this photo on her window sill, face up to the sun, hoping that it dries or... unstickies? But it never does. Instead, the colors fade and mellow until her memories are more vivid than the faces on that little square of paper.

But she can't bring herself to throw it away or even pick it up these days. It seems so fragile.

/Smile/

She failed the chuunin exams, but she can't help the surge of pride she feels at the un-glamorized shots of those few shinobi running out of the Forest of Death with Heaven and Earth in their hands. Especially when her shock of jaggedly cut pink hair is among them.

The pictures stay posted on a large corkboard in the halls of the academy until the next round of chuunin exams take place.

She doesn't lose that time.

_/Hold it/_

It's three in the afternoon on a Wednesday. This means that everyone is out on missions which in turn results in a rare moment of tranquility for the hospital staff. Anyone could tell that such a rare moment would find Sakura, ordered away from healing and towards a different sort of project: cleaning out one of the storage rooms attached to the Hokage's office.

(If Sakura was being unfair in her accusation then that was too damn bad! Tsunade had promised that she'd be teaching Sakura this morning. Instead Sakura found the older woman slumped over her desk nursing a hangover and an empty bottle of sake).

For the most part the documents are odds and ends of old mission reports, a few invoices that never got mailed out to the clients (who were probably dead, if the dates are accurate), and a couple hundred photos.

Initially she sets everything in one pile or the other, careful not to look too closely at any of the names or places. But after about an hour or so, one photo, then another, then another catch her eye as she recognizes faded and blurry snapshots of people she knows.

There's one in there of a young Kakashi. Or rather, it's of a young Kakashi's eye. But it looks like the eyelid has been sliced vertically (rather sloppily, the medic in her says) and is just starting to heal. The picture is free floating and so Sakura has no idea what the story behind that is. Maybe Tsunade will tell her?

There are a few of the other jounin teachers. Here she spots Asuma and the Third; there's a picture of Gai without his leotard. It's strange how much of a difference the lack of green makes; in the picture Gai almost looks normal.

And squeezed between the dozens of unidentifiable photographs are a few of the Rookie Nine.

As she wades through them, unconsciously sorting the faces she knows from the faces she doesn't, she realizes that there are a lot of both Sasuke and Naruto. Each time their face pops out among the crowds, Sakura furrows her eyebrows with determination (for them, maybe for her, she doesn't know) and continues on.

There are a few of the Hyuuga clan. In every picture their eyes look focused on the horizon, judging it from a distance.

There's a single, crumpled photo of Team Gai. It takes Sakura a minute to recognize the people in the picture (Lee doesn't look anything like the Lee she knows) but when she does it's hard to mistake the odd assembly as anything else. If she turns the picture sideways she can just make out Gai standing in a tree and pointing towards the sky. "Does every teacher train from the trees?" She mutters as she spots the last member of the team. Hyuuga Neji is meditating quite a ways off; a speck of white on a field of green. With his face so carefully blank, she can see why people once said he looked like Sasuke (before that was an insult).

There is one of Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji with their deadly looking parents. The new InoShikaCho is very young in the picture and everyone is looking pretty proud. Very proud, really... except for Shikamaru. He just looks put upon (which, from what Sakura knows about the other shinobi, is a fair assessment).

She only sees one of herself. In the picture there's a mob of other children, all throwing kunai at short-range targets as Iruka instructs them all from the safety of a nearby branch.

Sakura is in the background of this one, tossing a kunai more than throwing it, as she watches Ino watch Sasuke. It's with some small amount of bitter amusement that she glances at that old red bow (brilliant against the dappled green) and wonders how she ever thought it did anything to hide her forehead.

No, her short hair and gloved fists do that much better.

_#3: Photograph  
__-Sunpies-_

_For Lady Silvamord_


	2. Perfection in the Direction of the Sun

_#17: Duty of Sibling  
-Sunpies-_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, et, al. _

"Get up." He says and she struggles to her feet one more time. If she wasn't exhausted an hour ago, she is now.

And it tells in every movement of her hands; the way they keep missing those 361 tenketsu by gaping hairs. It tells in the way her legs never move quite fast enough to dodge the rapid thrusts of his palms; it's damning even when she's trying so hard to hide it.

She's weakest on her left side so that's where he strikes. It's less than a minute since she stood and she's on the ground again with her arm hugged around her torso.

Neji watches her impassively. It has always been this way. She's always had that one weak spot (her left side; her father's expectations; her kindness); like some humiliating brand, open to the whole world's scrutiny. And no matter how she's tried, she can never stretch her thin veneer of strength to cover her multitudes of single weak spots without it tearing where she seems to need it most.

And Neji isn't a fool; he knows she will probably never be able to cover over all of her weaknesses. But then, he often wonders, what's left for those who can't hide their flaws but to be flawless?

"Get up." He says and she struggles to her feet once more. Always once more.

He settles into his stance (strong, steady, and easy as a deep breath) and she settles into hers (tipped slightly on her left side and uneasy as quick puffs of air pulled in with desperation).

He strikes on her left side again (weakness) faster than she can see. And if she falls a little faster, she'll climb to her feet once more and he'll push her a little higher.

This is Hyuuga.

_#17: Duty of Sibling  
-Sunpies-_

_For Lady Silvamord_


	3. A Whiter Shade of Pale

_#30: Blood  
-Sunpies-_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto et, al._

The first human patient Sakura ever has to treat is a Hyuuga woman who has miscarried after a mission that went awry. Normally nobody would ask Sakura to help with anything yet, but they're running low on people (everyone is flying to different parts of the hospital to get this group stable) and there's nothing that can be done for the baby anymore anyway.

At least that's what Tsunade tells her. And then yells at her, when Sakura can't make it past the door because the blood is everywhere. It doesn't seem to stop. It's trickling from between the woman's legs onto the hospital bed to form a pool on the floor. There are messy smears of it along the curtain where the woman grabbed with a hand that's missing a finger.

"She's bleeding out, Sakura, move it or she dies!" Tsunade screams at her and there's panic well hidden behind anger in those brown eyes.

Sakura nods dumbly but doesn't move. The woman is screaming and screaming about her baby. Half of it isn't even coherent. In a moment of weakness Sakura thinks that maybe if the woman weren't screaming so loudly, she'd be able to get herself together. Because really, only one of them can freak out at a time!

Another medic shoves past her, too busy to be disgusted with her lack of help, and it's the shove that Sakura needs. Suddenly she's at Tsunade's side, channeling a steady flow of chakra to the older woman like they've practiced a thousand times.

When it's all over, Tsunade closes the curtain and only then does the tension leave her shoulders (it's like her whole body visibly sags and Sakura doesn't think she's ever seen Tsunade look this old before). "I didn't think you'd be able to do it, for a moment there." And the statement sounds a lot like regret and sadness even if she's smiling with relief when she says it.

"I was just a little shocked, that's all." Sakura admits shakily with a smile of her own. Tsunade doesn't seem convinced. She places a hand on Sakura's shoulder and it's heavy enough to ground her and stop the room from doing that awful spinning thing.

-

When she goes home that night Sakura dreams of the pale Hyuuga getting whiter and whiter and whiter as blood pours out in torrents onto the floor.

_#30: Blood  
-Sunpies-_

_For Lady Silvamord_


	4. The Important Things

_#1: Savings Box  
__-Sunpies-_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, et, al._

Sakura's savings box probably had money in it at some point, but that wasn't at any time in the recent past (she has a gorgeous new pair of gloves and a powerful new stethoscope, but no money).

Instead the purple and pink box is filled with stickers, a picture, a half-empty package of gum, bits of paper, a key, three buttons, movie ticket stubs, hair bands (and hair), plastic jewelry... the list goes on.

"I hate being poor!" She hung her head.

-

Neji also has a savings box. He just doesn't know it.

The box is a slim rectangle of cardboard that slips into the bottom drawer of his desk, mostly forgotten. It was, at first, the wrapping for some seeds he received as a gift from Hinata. He'd politely refused the gift initially, explaining that the seeds would be better off in her care as he hadn't the time to take care of a single plant, much less a garden.

Hinata had seemed somewhat put out by his refusal, but he couldn't bring himself to feel poorly over saving the lives of a few prospective plants. He had only reconsidered later, while training with his team.

"She's trying hard, Neji." Tenten remarked, grunting as she tugged a shuriken lodged deeply in the trunk of a tree. "The least you could do is take the plants." With a last pull it came loose to Tenten's obvious satisfaction.

"Seeds."

"Whatever. You don't even have to grow them." Tenten pulled another shuriken free and tossed it to the ground. "Just don't know let her know that you didn't." She looked up at the tree, peppered all down one side with her weapons. "Get your ass over here and help me."

With as little nonsense as possible, Neji had approached Hinata later that night about her gift. "I'll figure something out." He'd told her stoically, refusing to bother with explaining his sudden change of heart. She'd slipped away from him to retrieve the seeds, but he hadn't missed the smile on her face as she left.

"Thank you, Hinata-sama." He bowed formally as he accepted the gift. He wouldn't be able to do anything with the seeds but he supposed the thought was well meant.

"Of course, Neji-niisan." As he made to leave she had added, "You look like you might like to grow something."

He still doesn't understand what she meant that day, but he keeps the seeds and the few other important things he has -his mother's wedding ring, his father's second favorite shuriken (Neji uses his first), and a small collection of feathers- in the box that he doesn't know is his savings box.

_#1: Savings Box  
__-Sunpies-_

For Lady Silvamord


	5. The Taste of Humility

_#51: Dirt  
__-Sunpies-_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto et, al._

"If you win, I'll go to dinner with you." Sakura said confidently, feeling the comfortable pull of leather against her skin as she shoved her gloves down over her hands. Flexing her fingers into a fist, her muscles were limber and tingling in the cool fall air. Konoha was beautiful today, the leaves just beginning to turn a golden yellow in the midst of all the greenery, and the weather was perfect for sparring.

"But Sakura-san! What if I was to hurt you?" Lee asked, his normally wide eyes growing wider at the thought.

"Yeah, it'd be a bummer to have to wheel your date to dinner, eh Lee?" Tenten prodded as she casually lobbed another weapon at Neji. Even standing on the other side of the clearing the Hyuuga's smirk was apparent.

Sakura fumed. This was just what she wanted everyone to stop doing! They all just assumed she was going to lose. What, did Tsunade have money on her or something? "Are you saying I'm weak?" She asked, cracking her knuckles dangerously.

If possible, Lee's eyes grew even larger. "Eh! Of course not, my beautiful Sakura-san! It's just..." He groped for the words gamely as Sakura waited with a look of increasing irritation. "It's just that Tenten's right: It isn't very youthful to have your first date take place with an unsightly injury."

Neji snorted softly at Lee's pitiful answer -earning him a glare from the taijutsu user- before turning his attention to Sakura. "You should feel grateful that he cares for you as strongly as he does. Not many are thus burdened."

"Neji." Tenten hissed, trying very pointedly to draw him from the conversation.

"What's that supposed to mean, Hyuuga?" Sakura demanded loudly, barely restraining herself from punching him _/Sakura, thank you/_.

He turned to face her, devoid of emotion._ /I'll bring him back! Promise of a lifetime/_ "What do you think it means?" He remarked as if he was commenting on the weather.

There was a single moment where Sakura's heart slammed so hard against her ribs she half expected it to fall out onto the grass with a wet smack and keep painfully beating. _/With just you remaining, I'll be returning to active duty. I trust you'll be fine under Tsunade's tutelage/_

"Something the matter, Haruno?" Neji asked archly, not even pausing in pulling weapons from their targets.

"YOU." This time Sakura didn't contain herself, swinging a chakra enhanced fist towards the other shinobi.

Underestimating the force behind the blow, Neji attempted to block it and went flying across the clearing, landing in the undergrowth and grass with a crash. Sakura probably would have cared more about his safety at that moment if her traitorous eyes weren't filling so quickly, she roughly wiped her eyes across the material of her gloves. The balm on her lips tasted awful but she bit down anyway until she no longer felt so much like crying.

Tenten shook her head and went to check if the other shinobi was all right when he didn't immediately come kaiten-ing his way out of the bushes. Lee on the other hand was in shock, torn between being worried for his teammate and awed by Sakura's strength.

"He's out cold. Do you think we should take him to the hospital, Sakura?" Tenten called, as she lugged the larger male out into the open.

Honestly, Sakura didn't care what they did with him. They could toss him in the water to drowned, they could burn him alive, they could... they could... they could eat him alive... well that was cannibalism, so something else equally terrible. In any event, Hyuuga Neji could crawl down a hole and die as far as she was concerned. She was about to say so too, but a look at Lee's face -an obvious mix of shock and concern- stopped her.

"I don't know." She said shortly as she stomped out of the field. "But the taste of dirt will probably do him some good."

Not that she could have heard, but neither of Neji's teammates corrected her.

_#51: Dirt  
__-Sunpies-_

_For Lady Silvamord_


	6. Stars

_#7: A group of shooting stars/falling stars  
__-Sunpies-_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, et, al._

Sakura is there after Tsunade assigns missions and these days a lot of missions go to the kids she grew up with (who weren't, she knows now, ever kids at all). When Ino goes on her first A-class seduction mission it is a bittersweet moment for the little medic-nin, and it's the first time she knows that she's part of a group of stars that have ended their time flying in the same direction.

-

Tsunade knows now that, more than a hokage, she's a jaded old woman who looks at this group of young people and can only see a different group of stars (she spends a lot of time drinking and quietly hoping that these new stars will at least have a chance to shine before they fall).

_#7: A group of shooting stars/falling stars  
__-Sunpies-_

_For Lady Silvamord_


	7. The Things Almost No One Knows

_028: Secret_

_-Sunpies-_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, et, al._

Sakura's biggest secret is that she's read at least two of the Icha Icha books and didn't find them that pervy. She also lied to Ino –sorry- about her weight… she might have cheated in the last week of that diet (and if she did, the brownie had been worth every sinful pound).

Oh, and don't tell ANYONE, but there'd also been a short time when she'd been about… seventeen when she couldn't stop thinking about Kakashi-sensei. It had been the shortest crush of her life and, if she's honest with herself, the crush was probably more about missing her team than wanting to sex up an old man.

NOT that Ino could tell anyone any of this! (Especially the old man part)

-

Neji has only several things that he considers classified information.

Only his team knows that he still has quiet nightmares about his father that cause him to wake up in a cold-sweat and leave him unable to sleep for the rest of the night. They are also the only ones who know how much he dislikes most shoes. Most of the time, shoes are either too warm or too cold and the shinobi-issue sandals are just impractical.

His team plus the hospital staff are the only people who know how much time he spends on his appearance on a regular basis. It is the one indulgence most feel they are willing to allow him. Neji has never thought of grooming himself as an indulgence, rather as tending to another aspect of his personal wellbeing.

Hinata is the only one who knows that, every so often, Neji still hates her and her father. It isn't something she blames him for and she suspects he might never forgive them for letting things continue on the way they are. She doesn't share any of this with anyone.

Neji only has one real secret; his most graphic sex-dream was about his teammate. The dream was so vivid he can still hear Lee shouting about his youthful maneuvers before…

Neji only has one real secret, something that absolutely no one knows, and he intends to keep it that way.

_#28: Secret_

_-Sunpies-_

_For Lady Silvamord_


	8. Scratch and Sniff

_#74: Smell  
__-Sunpies-_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto et al. _

#74: Smell

When Sakura treats Neji in the hospital for a dislocated shoulder he smells like the forest and sweat; the smells she associates with all the shinobi she knows.

He also smells of an herbal liniment he's been using on his knees for the last few years. Hinata told her one time that all of the Hyuuga who manage to learn kaiten endure some amount of joint pain.

Though he always seems clean when she sees him, he doesn't smell of shampoo, cologne, or even toothpaste. But, then again, she wouldn't expect anything less of a shinobi of his caliber.

But underneath all that is a quiet, heady smell she can't quite put her finger on. Sakura finds herself caught between hating him for being… himself, and wanting to bury her head in his shirt (consequences be damned!).

_#74: Smell  
__-Sunpies-_

_For Lady Silvamord_


	9. Slight of Hand

_#76: Magic  
__-Sunpies-_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto et al._

Sakura learned the few magic tricks she knows from Kakashi, whose only real hobby (excluding reading porn and standing in front of the memorial stone) is magic.

(Strangely, it was one of the few things that Kakashi ever offered to outright teach any of them. But Sasuke wasn't interested and Naruto never got the hang of _waiting_ to reveal the trick, so Sakura was the only one of them who ever managed any kind of success with it.)

Slight of hand, like everything else Kakashi had pushed at them, has its uses: like every so often when she's working on a person that she can see is afraid. Some times the patient is so caught up trying to work out the trick that they barely notice a thing as she pokes, prods, or sticks them.

"_Just sew me up if you don't have the chakra." Neji bit out between clenched teeth. The trail of an enemy kunai dropped from his mid-thigh to just above the knee, furiously soaking the left leg of his pants vibrant red._

_They'd both been too slow and now they were paying for it._

_Concealed beneath the thick boughs of a tree, Sakura nodded grimly and set about stitching him up. Though his face remained nearly impassive, his eyes stubbornly closed as he tried to set the pain aside, the clenching of his jaw every time the needle passed through his skin gave him away._

_When she was finished and the bleeding had stopped, they both decided to stay there for the night rather than risk traveling. It was a good decision and she hardly regretted it. But if she did, it was because she'd been sent all that way to find/rescue the missing ANBU member and he was being a dick._

"_You want to see a magic trick? It might get your mind off of the pain."_

"_I'm not in pain and there's no such thing as magic."_

"…_dick."_

But that's not always the case.

_#76: Magic  
__-Sunpies-_

_For Lady Silvamord_


	10. An Inroad

_#67: Childhood friend  
__-Sunpies-_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto et al._

"Then he was like, 'I'm not in pain and I don't want to see a magic trick'… or something like that." Sakura slammed her fist down on the table making it jump. "He is _such_ a jerk!"

Ino was quiet for a long time, the silence occasionally interrupted as she sipped her milkshake thoughtfully. "He doesn't have a lot of friends, you know."

"So? Why should I care?" Sakura asked, or rather pouted sullenly. "It's not like I can blame anyone for not wanting to hang out with him. I mean, like I said, he's a jerk."

Scraping the inside of her glass with the bottom of her straw, Ino shrugged. "I was just thinking he probably doesn't know if he's being a jerk."

"Ya right."

Ino ignored that. "Most of the time, our friends are the ones who give us perspective. If he doesn't have many…" She let that hang between them, staring at Sakura meaningfully until the other girl was forced to look away.

Sakura drew meandering patterns in the condensation on the plastic table. She couldn't believe she felt the least bit guilty. "Damn it, Ino. You know you're supposed to be my friend, right? Not his."

Ino just smiled.

_#67: Childhood friend  
__-Sunpies-_

_For Lady Silvamord_


	11. A Ridiculous Color

_#87: Mother  
__-Sunpies-_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto et al._

"Is your mother's hair pink?" Neji asked groggily.

Sakura smiled to herself as she flashed a small light in each of his eyes. His normal reflexes were all right, but she just wanted to make sure before she sent him back onto active duty. "Yes it is." As soon as she released his chin his head started to wobble. "That must have been some hit you took, Hyuuga-san. I'm going to recommend to the Hokage that she take you off the rosters for a week, how does that sound?"

She honestly expected him to sullenly stop talking to her after that, instead he nodded dumbly.

"Poor Neji-chan." Sakura chuckled as she left; it seemed the poor ANBU captain was as harmless as a kitten when he wasn't in his right mind.

"You probably shouldn't reproduce." He mumbled groggily, almost to himself. Unfortunately Sakura, only half way out of the room, heard him perfectly.

"What?"

"If pink is a dominant hair color, any son you had would inherit it."

Sakura was torn between laughing at his logic and wanting to kill him. "Maybe he would like pink hair." She said at last.

Neji shook his head and moaned in the negative. "Ridiculous color for hair."

The childish place inside of Sakura was trying to decide if having ten pink-haired children, just to spite the Hyuuga, would be going too far.

_#87: __Mother  
__-Sunpies-_

_For Lady Silvamord_


	12. The Dream is a Nightmare

_#23: Castle in the Sky  
-Sunpies-_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto et al._

Sakura knows that Kakashi is the ideal shinobi. He isn't the most powerful, or the smartest, but she thinks he might be the best. It's in the way he never dies. He's damn near immortal.

She's stopped counting all the times she's pulled him back when he's almost gone, because Shikamaru –while looking over Kakashi's file- assured her that mathematical principles could not accommodate such a task.

And that's not even including the multitude of times she's had to seal this cut, sew that wound, and make the bruises recede.

Kakashi is fulfilling the impossible goal of a shinobi: to live.

As Sakura stands over Neji, gore up to her elbows, knowing that he will once again walk out of the hospital as if nothing ever happened, she thinks that Neji might be a lot like Kakashi that way.

If he was living the dream, why was she crying for him?

_#23: Castle in the Sky  
-Sunpies-_

_For Lady Silvamord_


	13. Light Up the Darkness

_#68: Smile  
-Sunpies-_

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto et al.

Neji doesn't smile very often; to him, the things that are worth smiling over often deserve a smirk more than a smile. But when he does, because it's so seldom used, his smile is shy and uneasy as if he has to coax it out of himself.

Sakura thinks it's the most adorable thing she's ever seen.

--

They live in a shinobi village and Neji is perhaps too aware of how easy it would be to forget there are things that exist beyond blood, death, and the next mission. He knows the bright spots in the world can be quickly swallowed up by the misery that hounds their way of life.

To him, Sakura's smile is a miracle.

_#68: Smile  
-Sunpies-_

_For Lady Silvamord_


	14. Don't Judge a Book

_#49: Color  
__-Sunpies-_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto et al._

Sakura's collection of gifts from her friends and family (not counting shinobi tools) consists mainly of emerald things and things with an unmistakable sakura blossom theme. It's all well meant, and she loves the people, but really!

Her favorite flowers are not sakura blossoms. They never will be. She used to like roses –they were really romantic- but that seems kind of juvenile now.

Her favorite color is not green. She likes the color of her eyes and thinks they're one of her best traits, but that doesn't mean she wants everything she owns to be the same damn green! (Sadly, most of her green gifts are. That is, except for the headband from Naruto who didn't know what color emerald was so he got her something so yellow-green that it resembles a frog.)

All of this is part of why she's so grateful when she receives the ugliest arrangement of flowers in pale shades of yellow and white as a thank you for her care. Because, while it may be the most horrific thing to come from human hands and she doesn't particularly care for who is giving the flowers, at least Neji didn't give her something pink or green.

_#49: Color  
__-Sunpies-_

_For Lady Silvamord_


	15. What She Remembers

_#81 Memory  
__-Sunpies-_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto et al._

There is something numbing about knowing you're going to die. It's almost tangible in the same way that a memory is, Sakura thinks.

The mission was a complete failure. It was an information gathering mission that went all wrong. Maybe they had been careless or maybe the enemy had just been more careful than they had, it didn't matter. Before their team had even started, the squad of enemy shinobi separated them despite their captain's best efforts.

"It doesn't have to hurt." The shinobi guarding her said. Even from where she lay on the ground her captor was a short, slight man. His green-blonde hair hung in front of large brown doe-eyes. Off-hand he didn't look like he would be able to break both of her legs, but his innocence was deceiving.

"Fuck off."

He shrugged and coughed blood onto her face. Sakura furrowed her eyebrows confusion which was quickly replaced by relief when the other shinobi gasped and fell to reveal their team leader.

Neji bent to examine her legs. "Broken." He said tiredly. With that he picked her up in his arm, trying not to jostle her and then sped towards Konoha.

"Where are Aitomaru and Hiromi?" The dashing shadows that were their teammates were nowhere to be seen in the surrounding trees.

"Dead." Neji replied flatly. "I took care of the bodies." He said as if that was why she'd asked.

"Oh."

It took nearly three hours to reach Konoha and Neji stayed with her until Tsunade had to put her under to fix the broken bones.

"I didn't think anyone would come." She admitted drowsily, trying to keep her eyes focused on him. "Thank you."

Neji shook his head. He wasn't a hero; he was a captain trying to gather the surviving pieces of his team. "Sleep." He said at last, releasing her hand.

Tears forming in her eyes, Sakura drifted into a heavily medicated sleep.

Even years later, when she saw him all the time, that was the way she remembered him; matted with blood, pushed beyond exhaustion, and holding her hand after saving her life.

_#81 Memory  
__-Sunpies-_

_For Lady Silvamord_


	16. Another Road to Perfection

_#73: Eyes  
__-Sunpies-_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto et al._

The Hyuuga eyes see everything, and in such close proximity Hinata's eyes are as good as Neji's.

"Get up."

She does and when she looks at him in the dappled sunlight –sweating, humiliated, and angry-, Hinata can't remember when this training stopped being about her.

Another strike to her left side (where the bruises will already take days to heal) and she falls. It's a heavy wave of pain that hits her -why is she so slow? Hanabi wouldn't stop. Why doesn't her father care?- and she has to wrap her arms around herself to keep from bursting into a thousand pieces of floating dust on this sunny place.

_Weak._

"Get up."

And she does, because she can see that someday she won't be slow, she won't stop, and her father will care. Illuminated by Naruto, the tunnel only runs so far before it opens. Someday things won't be like this. She won't break.

_Maybe._

She falls.

"Get up."

Until then, her eyes, Neji's eyes, the world's eyes, tell her that this is Hyuuga.

_#73: Eyes  
__-Sunpies-_

_For Lady Silvamord_


	17. Ties That Bind

_#40: Rope  
-Sunpies-_

_Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto et al._

He sometimes thinks Naruto was the first to do it and like everything Naruto does, it was accomplished with an inhuman speed and overzealousness. It came as such a shock at first -having been so long without them- that he doesn't struggle until it's too late.

In the aftermath, it's all too easy for the rest of them.

Maybe Hinata was next, maybe it was her father. He thinks that maybe his team is smarter than he ever gave them credit for because he's beginning to suspect that they've been doing it since the beginning.

A long time ago Neji decided that even as he was, destined to remain a caged bird of the branch house, he would not allow others to tie him down; there was no strength there.

It is with some amount of humbling irony then that he realizes that he's never been quite as strong as when he's been completely tied down by every single one of them.

_#40: Rope  
-Sunpies-_

_For Lady Silvamord_


End file.
